Archive for April 27th, 2009

I went to that course with a bunch of guys from my SF unit. Shortly thereafter, I went to a civilian EMT course. In the EMT course, they refer to the NPA (naso-pharyngial airway) as the “Bugle of Truth”.

Apparently, in the civilian world, a whole lot of EMS calls involve junkies playing unconscious possum in order to get cool meds. Well-practiced junkies can even feign unresponsiveness to the Sternal Rub, which is the standard method of determining Level Of Consciousness; and if you’ve ever experienced the Sternal Rub, you know how bloody painful that is (Hell, we use that in my martial arts practice to torment people all the time, but we call it some cool Japanese name).

But nobody, not anybody, according to the EMT cadre, can feign unconsciousness during the insertion of an NPA. Just the threat of such insertion will supposedly rouse any junkie who has previously tried to bluff their way through an NPA insertion during a prior med quest. Thus the name “Bugle of Truth”. If you want to know if somebody is faking unconsciousness, stuff an NPA up their rose sniffer and see what happens.